Chil­dren’s

Yuvi’s Can­dy Tree

Les­ley Simp­son; Jan­ice Lee Porter, illus.
  • Review
By – August 30, 2011
Yuvi’s Can­dy Tree is a fic­tion­al nar­ra­tive of the real-life jour­ney of Yeu­vmert Yuvi” Tashome who as a child par­tic­i­pat­ed in Oper­a­tion Moses which enabled about 8,000 Ethiopi­an Jews to move to Israel, leav­ing from Sudanese refugee camps. Sad­ly, many Ethiopi­an Jews also died while attempt­ing to make aliya. Yuvi left Ethiopia by rid­ing a don­key. This mov­ing pic­ture book con­veys a sense of opti­mism about the future despite the sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges faced by Yuvi’s fam­i­ly. Yuvi’s grand­moth­er says, We are going to our real home, to Israel. In Jerusalem, your wish­es will come true.” The suf­fer­ing and hard­ship Ethiopi­an Jews expe­ri­enced in their efforts to make aliya are well described. For instance, Yuvi and the mem­bers of her fam­i­ly are robbed while trav­el­ing to a refugee camp in Sudan, and they are often hun­gry. The illus­tra­tions are a good por­tray­al of the dai­ly strug­gles many Ethiopi­an Jews expe­ri­enced. More­over, the vivid, col­or­ful illus­tra­tions make Yuvi’s sto­ry unfor­get­table and inspir­ing. This impor­tant pic­ture book is rec­om­mend­ed for ages 5 – 8.

Nathan Weissler is a 2021 col­lege grad­u­ate from Mary­land, and has been review­ing for Jew­ish Book Coun­cil for over ten years.

Discussion Questions